Lots of fans wonder if Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby or even Evgeni Malkin might be the best player in the NHL. After watching Thursday’s game featuring Washington against Pittsburgh, I don’t think Ovechkin really cares who’s the best in the league, but who’s the best Russian playing in the NHL.

Never before have I witnessed a superstar like Ovie continually go out of his way to hit, and sometimes head hunt, another superstar like Malkin the way Ovechkin did on Thursday. At one point Ovie steamed across the ice in an attempt to board Malkin only to see the Penguins star duck right before what would’ve been a hellacious impact.

Forget Crosby vs. Ovechkin – Ovechkin vs Malkin is worth the price of admission. These two always play with a physical edge (especially Ovie), but nothing like they did on Thursday.

How should the Penguins respond? Send fighters Eric Godard or Paul Bissonnette out against Ovechkin? Would that set up an extended Washington PP? Should Malkin drop the gloves with Ovechkin? What happened? The Penguins chose to do nothing and Malking kept getting run.

It was an amazing sight to see the top two Russians do battle against each other.
It was pretty obvious Ovechkin cares more about who’s the best Russian than anything else.